First Aid at Christmas — Review
Even during the holidays, there are doctors who work in the emergency room to save lives. First Aid at Christmas focuses on a group of hospital workers during their unorthodox Christmas celebrations, and their strange (and slightly magical) experiences when the hospital is buried under a snowstorm. But even these Christmassy atmospheres cannot help the uninspired plot and acting, making the viewing experience quite flat. First Aid at Christmas is mainly a typical Dutch story with stiff acting, where the extremely well-articulated dialogues also leave a lot to be desired. The characters are not layered and all have shortcomings (except Shanti, who is always depicted as an angel) that make them seem extremely unpleasant. As a result, it never becomes attractive to sympathize with them. The story lacks a specific starting point and has been meandering along from the beginning. This, combined with the characters who each have to complete a moral quest, makes for a typical Christmas story with little that is innovative. For example, there is a boy who must leave his criminal tendencies behind to save his family. There is a grumpy substitute doctor who has to struggle with her humanity when she discovers that she is not unbreakable after all. And a doctor whose partner will soon break up, forcing him to accept his new single life. Although the central cast are not necessarily huge names in the Dutch acting landscape, First Aid at Christmas does a lot of cameos. Tim Haars, Imanuelle Grivens, Peter Paul Muller, Splinter Chabot and many others are featured. These little rolls break up the monotony and provide small breaks of recognition. The plot, pacing and acting are extremely slow. There is an unnecessary amount of silence due to moments of slow reflections and other uninteresting pauses. This combined with the absence of consequences or actual exciting moments provides few reasons to actually want to continue watching. Except for the one ongoing mystery, which continues throughout the film.
An injured man is introduced at the beginning of the film. He says he has amnesia and no longer knows who he is. But once he is actually admitted and tested for his ailments, all kinds of inexplicable things start happening. While the entire hospital tries to work in the harsh weather conditions, the identity of this mysterious patient is slowly revealed. This storyline could have been a lot of fun, but the execution is not good enough.
First Aid at Christmas ultimately fails to present the cheerful elements of Christmas without using stereotypes. Will Koopman’s best-known work is Gooische Vrouwen , but its satirical style is missing here. If that was the intention, it did not come to fruition. Sadly, this film will be forgotten among the pack of Christmas films that come out every year.
